Refining Crude Oil and Reactions of Alkanes

Vocabulary flashcards covering key concepts from the lecture notes on refining crude oil, fractional distillation, cracking, combustion, pollution from combustion, synthesis of halogenoalkanes, and free radical substitution.

Fractional Distillation

Industrial process where oil is pre-heated and passed into a column, with fractions condensing at different heights based on boiling point.

Van der Waals forces

The force that increases with molecule size and affects boiling point.

Vacuum distillation

Distillation of heavy residues under a vacuum to lower boiling points and prevent breakdown at high temperatures.

Petroleum

A compound consisting mainly of alkane hydrocarbons.

Petroleum fraction

A mixture of hydrocarbons with a similar chain length and boiling point range.

Cracking

Conversion of large hydrocarbons into smaller hydrocarbon molecules by breaking C-C bonds.

Thermal Cracking

Cracking carried out at high pressure and high temperature which produces mostly alkenes.

Catalytic Cracking

Cracking carried out at slight or moderate pressure and high temperature with a Zeolite catalyst, which produces branched and cyclic alkanes and aromatic hydrocarbons.

Combustion

The process where alkanes burn in the presence of oxygen, releasing heat energy.

Complete Combustion

Combustion that occurs when alkanes are burned with sufficient oxygen, producing CO2 and H2O.

Incomplete Combustion

Combustion that occurs with a limited amount of oxygen, producing CO and/or C.

Flue gas desulfurisation

Removal of SO2 from waste gases using basic calcium oxide in a neutralisation reaction.

Carbon Monoxide

A toxic gas that diminishes the capacity of blood to carry oxygen.

Catalytic converters

Gases that remove CO, NOx, and unburned hydrocarbons from exhaust gases, converting them into CO2, N2, and H2O.

Greenhouse gases

Gases, such as CO2, CH4, and H2O, that absorb infrared radiation and contribute to global warming.

Free radical

A reactive species which possess an unpaired electron.

Homolytic fission

The splitting of a covalent bond where each atom gets one electron from the covalent bond, forming free radicals.

Initiation

The step where the UV light supplies the energy to break the Cl-Cl bond, creating free radicals.

Propagation

The step where the chlorine free radicals remove an H from the methane leaving a methyl free radical, which reacts with a Cl2 molecule to produce the main product and another Cl free radical.

Termination

The collision of two free radicals that does not generate further free radicals, terminating the chain reaction.